There have been many solutions proposed for how to generate, store and analyze data from a vending machine. There have also been many proposed solutions to monitoring and controlling multiple remotely located vending machines by using the data generated from vending machines.
For the purposes of the disclosure, a vending machine includes, but is not limited to, a beverage machine, a food/snack machine, a full line vending machine, a kiosk, a drink machine, a ticket terminal, and automated teller machine (ATM), or any other device capable of accepting items of value in exchange for goods or services
In a vast majority of the known systems for collecting vending machine data, there is typically a remotely located vending machine having a machine controller, and an audit device for communicating with the vending machine controller to obtain operational data about the machine. Also included in a typical vending machine is a payment device for accepting monies from a consumer. Examples of payment devices include bill acceptors, coin acceptors, credit card readers, debit card readers smart card readers, and even contactless card readers. Typically the tracking of vending machine operation is handled by the vending machine controller and stored in a standard format such as DEX (Data Exchange Interface) data or European Vending Association (EVA)-DTS (Data Transfer Standard) data as commonly recognized in the industry. When the operational data generated by the vending machine is desired to be obtained or reported, an audit module will request (e.g., by polling the Vending Machine Controller (VMC)) the most recent data (or DEX file) from the VMC. In various forms, the audit device is capable of downloading the data file to a service device (e.g., handheld computer or laptop) or if equipped, the audit device can transmit the data to a remote processing facility.
In some machines, such as those without a dedicated audit device, the coin acceptor typically operates to control the cash management functions of a vending machine and thus stores all the data related to such machine activity. In such a vending machine configuration, the VMC also stores other vending data such as items sold, inventory levels, etc. This configuration presents a problem for the operator of the vending machine because in order to obtain all the relevant vending machine operational data, the VMC has to be accessed to obtain the most recent sales and inventory information and then in a separate operation, the payment device (e.g., coin acceptor) has to be accessed to obtain the transactional data (e.g., transaction records, cash levels, available change, etc.) of the vending machine.
In other types of vending machines, the VMC is configured to store the product information and the transaction information. However, even in this configuration there is still certain operational data (e.g., coin tube empty, coin tube jam, banknote recycler empty, etc.) that is stored within a payment device (or vending machine peripheral). The audit devices currently used and known in the art are capable of obtaining the product and transaction information from a single source since this information is available from the vending machine controller. However the additional operational data stored within a peripheral device must be separately audited and thus two or more vending data files or records (e.g., DEX files) will be generated.